An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

The Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) is plan­ning to file an­oth­er le­gal chal­lenge of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty’s (WASA) trans­for­ma­tion process.

PSA Pres­i­dent Leroy Bap­tiste said the ac­tion is be­ing con­sid­ered af­ter Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les said on Sat­ur­day that the WASA’s top-heavy man­age­ment struc­ture is be­ing tack­led in the lat­est phase of the re­struc­tur­ing pro­gramme.

Cab­i­net’s Hu­man Re­source Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee (HRAC) is re­view­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for com­pen­sa­tion pack­ages for 226 new ex­ec­u­tive lead­er­ship po­si­tion and Gon­za­les said once ap­proved, “an an­nounce­ment will be made al­most im­me­di­ate­ly.”

Bap­tiste said: “I had peo­ple call down my phone yes­ter­day, cry­ing af­ter the sto­ry was pub­lished in the news­pa­pers as they do not know how they will pay their rent, go­ing for­ward, and what­ev­er change the gov­ern­ment will pur­port to give them with to go home would not be able to us­tain in any which way.”

The PSA leader made it clear that the aim is not to stop the re­struc­tur­ing process but to chal­lenge Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proach which he de­scribed as an­ti-trade union and an­ti-work­er.

“They will en­gage in lip ser­vice con­sul­ta­tion and then do what? De­stroy work­ers’ lives! That has been their modus operan­di, to not en­gage in mean­ing­ful con­sul­ta­tion to see how best both par­ties can treat with the mat­ter,” Bap­tiste said.

He al­so ex­pressed con­cern that many peo­ple have been work­ing in WASA for more than 21 years and do not have a first ap­point­ment. He said the PSA has been try­ing to meet with WASA’s man­age­ment to fill the va­can­cies and reg­u­larise peo­ple’s sta­tus.

“There are hun­dreds of va­cant po­si­tions which they refuse to fill and have work­ers work­ing tem­porar­i­ly be­cause, for more than two decades, they have had peo­ple who re­tire from WASA on salaries that are nowhere on the salaries they were work­ing on, “ he said.  

Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers (NUGFW) pres­i­dent gen­er­al James Lam­bert, said the union is anx­ious­ly await­ing a meet­ing Gon­za­les said will take place short­ly with all three unions.

Lam­bert’s union, rep­re­sents 1,800 dai­ly-rat­ed WASA work­ers. He said­while it sounds like man­agers are be­ing tar­get­ed in the lat­est re­struc­tur­ing, no union is hap­py to hear that em­ploy­ees are go­ing home.